L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, MAY 14, 2020 www.italoamericano.org 18 L'Italo-Americano " Via Montenapoleo- n e , i l s a l o t t o d i M i l a n o , r i t r o v o delle signore dell'é- lite della città." It was 1954 when Dutch born singer Peter Van Wood sang his ode to the beating heart of Milan, the spine of what was already the centre of the city's fashion district, the "quadrilatero della moda." If we want to be h i s t o r i c a l l y a c c u r a t e , w e s h o u l d s a y t h a t t h e v e r y s a m e a r e a w a s a l r e a d y k n o w n a s " q u a d r i l a t e r o " (quadrangle) as far back as the Middle Ages, when its boundaries were marked by ancient Roman walls and, on one side, by the Seveso River that today runs under- ground. Via Montenapoleone is considered the fifth most l u x u r i o u s s t r e e t i n t h e w o r l d , h u b o f d e s i g n , fashion and all that is qua- lity Made in Italy. Indeed, this is a place of wealth, a place where most do win- dow shopping and only a selected few get into stores to buy; it is a place to see and be seen, the Holy Land o f a l l f a s h i o n i s t a s i n t h e w o r l d . B u t V i a Montenapoleone is also a symbol — we just said a few l i n e s a b o v e — o f q u a l i t y Made in Italy, because the n a m e s s h i n i n g f r o m i t s many, elegantly decorated windows scream of Italian tradition and unsurpassed c r a f t s m a n s h i p : V e r s a c e , P r a d a , V a l e n t i n o , M a r n i , they all have a store here. Keeping them company, of course, the great of interna- t i o n a l f a s h i o n , i n c l u d i n g B a l e n c i a g a a n d L o u i s Vuitton. Yet, bona fide Milanese people would tell you there was also another side to the street, one less fashionable but equally charming, if not m o r e , m a d e o f n e i g h - borhood bakeries and but- c h e r i e s , o f l o c a l v e n d o r s you'd know by name. This is because, in spite of all the glitz, Via Montenapoleone, o n c e u p o n a t i m e , w a s a s t r e e t l i k e m a n y o t h e r s : sure, in a well off part of town, with beautiful palaces and affluent people, but still a street like all the rest. T r u t h i s t h a t V i a Montenapoleone has a very long and interesting story. Up to the 18th century, it w a s c a l l e d C o n t r a d a d i Sant'Andrea and it was h o m e o f m a n y c o n v e n t s , with their beautiful cloisters and orchards. Quite an idil- lic little place, right in the c e n t e r o f t o w n . I n 1 7 7 2 , M a r y T h e r e s e o f A u s t r i a ( M i l a n b e l o n g e d t o t h e Hapsburg in those years) had a pawn store, a banco dei pegni, opened, so the street changed its name to Via di Monte di Santa T e r e s a . As it often hap- pens, locals were reluctant to abandon old habits, so they preferred to call it with a hybrid of its old and new n a m e , C o n t r a d a d e l Monte. M a r y T h e r e s e ' s p a w n store didn't last long, it clo- s e d d o w n a n d e v e n t u a l l y reopened only in the early 1 8 0 0 s , w h e n N a p o l e o n became King of Italy — or so he liked to say — and chose Milan as his headquarters. Napoleon changed the name of the Empress' old banco d e i p e g n i i n M o n t e d i Napoleone, hence the new name of the street, Via del M o n t e d i N a p o l e o n e . But, yet again locals can't get used to the new name, so they kept using the old Contrada del Monte which, by the way, was the name the street maintained after Napoleonic dominance col- lapsed in 1814. It is in these early years of t h e 1 9 t h c e n t u r y t h a t Contrada del Monte started getting the features we know it for today. The interest of Milan's aristocratic families towards the area grew, so elegant residences began taking the place of the old convents. Many wealthy and w e l l r e s p e c t e d M i l a n e s e families moved there, with their entourage of intellec- tuals and artists. And so, C o n t r a d a d e l M o n t e g o t nicknamed el quartier de r i v e r i s s i , t h e c u r t s y i n g neighborhood, because all men would pay their respect t o w o m e n b y d r o p p i n g a curtsy and lifting their hat, a g e s t u r e t y p i c a l o f h i g h e r b o r n g e n t l e m e n i n t h o s e days. With the neighborhood becoming exclusive, it's not a surprise that high end ate- liers such as those of anti- quarians or internationally k n o w n j e w e l e r s l i k e Annibale Cusi, who crea- ted exclusive pieces for the Savoia Family, opened in the street. Then, Buccellati, Faraone and Pederzani and k n i v e s m a k e r L o r e n z i a l l opened up stores there. But Contrada del Monte wasn't only a hot spot for luxury shopping and elegance, it b e c a m e a l s o a h u b f o r patriots, who would meet in its cafés to discuss how Italy could be freed from foreign d o m i n a t i o n a n d b e c o m e one, single country. During t h e C i n q u e G i o r n a t e d i Milano, when the people of Milan rebelled against the Austrians, our Contrada del Monte was at very heart of the clashes. Here, a slice of o u r R i s o r g i m e n t o w a s LIFE PEOPLE PLACES HERITAGE Via Montenapoleone, "Il Salotto di Milano" CHIARA D'ALESSIO aging and history of disease, f r o m c a n c e r t o d i a b e t e s , weaken cell-mediated immu- nity, T cells particularly, and regulatory T cells especially. W h e n w e a r e e x p o s e d t o SARS-Cov2, systemic and m u c o s a l c e l l - m e d i a t e d immunity can be so under- mined – exhausted T cells, including regulatory T cells – that the cytokine storm is left u n c h e c k e d . T h e c y t o k i n e storm is generally believed to be what kills patients with CoViD-19. A s n o t e d i n a p r e v i o u s issue, the cytokine storm can t r i g g e r t h e a l t e r n a t i v e , cytokine-mediated pathway for blood clotting. That is p r o b a b l y t h e r e a s o n w h y blood clot pathologies are increasingly noted in CoViD- 19, including strokes – par- ticularly among the younger patients, whose immune sys- tem is generally stronger than that of the elderly, but overwhelmed, nonetheless, by the cytokine storm. Notable recent findings u n d e r p e e r - r e v i e w i n Hospital Pediatrics also sug- gests that children infected with SARS-Cov2 show symp- toms of fever, rash, eye irrita- t i o n a n d s w o l l e n l y m p h nodes, and other Kawasaki disease-like characteristics. Kawasaki disease is a rare inflammatory syndrome typ- i c a l l y a f f e c t i n g c h i l d r e n , which manifests as a muco- cutaneous lymph node syn- d r o m e – a m u l t i t u d e o f p a t h o l o g i e s t h a t h a v e a s common denominator lymph nodes of mucosal and skin immunity. It follows that it is not safe, based on our pre- sent medical understanding o f C o V i D - 1 9 , t o r e - o p e n schools yet, as China has recently done. At this point, we do not have a viable treatment to control the cytokine storm. In the absence of a vaccine, of a sound knowledge of the a n t i b o d y r e s p o n s e t o t h e virus, and of a physiological treatment intervention, all we can do, it seems, is to con- sider anti-viral pharmacolog- i c t r e a t m e n t s , s u c h a s Remdesivir, developed by Gilead Sciences. This topic will be discussed in a future issue. D o t t . F r a n c e s c o C h i a p p e l l i , P r o f . E m e r . UCLA Center for the Health S c i e n c e s . F o r c o m m e n t s , questions or the Italian ver- sion of these few thoughts, please contact: Chiappelli. research@gmail.com Continued from page 16 Continued to page 20 Versace's flagship store in Via Montenapoleone, in Milan (Photo: Dreamstime)

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